Assume I have an up-to-date laptop (actually its a Toshiba Satellite Pro A120 Core 2 Duo 1.83 Ghz, 1 Gb memory 60Gb hd). What else do I need, both in principle and specifically. All advice welcome, I'm a noob.

I'm an absolute noob at this as well, but have had some good results with the really cheap ($60) large diaphragm condenser mics you can get now. The trick is that they need the full 48V phantom power supply to sound good. A high quality external A/D is the way to go, maybe an Emu or similar. Zzounds.com is a good place to get things, and their advice is usually pretty decent if you call or email. The items giving the best bang for the buck change frequently so get a wide variety of opinions.

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Make your own mics from Panasonic WM-61 cartridges.
Very Cheap, Very small and inconspicuous ( if need be ) and if modified can handle a high SPL.
You will find a variety of sites(Linkwitz for one ) that describe how to do this in detail, and how to build a mic preamp, for added flexibilty.
The Stereophile Reference CD's have tracks that demo the sound of various mic. positioning techniques to give you an idea what to try.

Yup, though I wasn't specific, those are exactly what I use. Note that you still need a phantom 48V supply. This can be a few caps and resistors, plus a stack of 9V batteries, or a commercial unit. Some people have a low opinion of those mics, others very high. I think they sound amazingly transparent and have a low noise floor. I also use the little Panasonic condenser mics for testing. IMO, they work well for measurement, but the signal to noise ratio is pretty bad, and I haven't found any fix for it. You can also do the trace-cut mod, but be sure to have a few spares, as it's a bit risky. Finally, note that the Emu 0202 is a bit weird in that the inputs are not the same. Though it has two channels, only *one* channel has a high gain mic input. It works great for stuff like recording from another preamp, but I think there are other models with two high gain mic inputs that would be better suited to what you describe. IMO, Emu stuff is great, but their description of the input circuitry is dismal.

__________________
I may be barking up the wrong tree, but at least I'm barking!